My sister broke off her engagement to marry someone richer? My older sister married me and became in

Zou Yuan did not head towards any treacherous valleys, nor did he point towards any steep cliffs.

He strolled along, leading Lu Qingshan back to the small thatched hut, as if the previous six days of hard work had been nothing more than a long walk.

He stopped, put his hands behind his back, and slightly raised his chin toward the large water vat he usually used to store water in the yard. His cloudy eyes revealed no emotion.

"The last hurdle is easy."

The old man spoke, his voice hoarse as if two stones were rubbing together, "Jump down."

Lu Qingshan looked in the direction he indicated, and saw an ordinary earthenware jar, the kind you'd find anywhere else in the countryside.

The rim of the jar was covered with a little moss, and it was filled with clear mountain spring water, the surface of which reflected the hazy sky in the valley.

He frowned. Over the past seven days, he had grown accustomed to the old man's eccentricities, but this test was truly baffling.

"Jump down?"

Lu Qingshan asked a question to confirm, his tone tinged with a hint of confusion.

"Old sir, what... what is the meaning behind this?"

"Is your hearing not working?"

Zou Yuan glanced at him sideways and said in a rather annoyed tone.

"Just jump when I tell you to. Why ask so many questions?"

Lu Qingshan took a deep breath and patiently continued to ask.

"There has to be some rules, right? What are you going to do by jumping down? The first six levels test your ability to identify herbs, process them, track them, and you need to be physically strong, sharp-eyed, and courageous – all essential skills for herb gatherers."

"But this seventh challenge... jumping into the water vat? Old man, what does that have to do with gathering herbs? Are you trying to test my internal martial arts skills, to see my breath-holding technique?"

"Heh," Zou Yuan chuckled softly through his nose, a hint of mockery in his voice.

"Kid, you're overthinking it. I wouldn't even look at your mediocre internal martial arts. The rules are simple."

He extended a withered finger.

"Stay underwater for a full hour without surfacing or taking a breath. If you can do that, you pass the test."

Lu Qingshan was completely stunned.

An hour?

This is no longer a simple matter of holding one's breath; it is the ultimate test of a martial artist's internal energy cultivation technique!

Countless questions arose in his mind, but looking at Zou Yuan's sullen face that said, "Take the test or not, I'm too lazy to explain," he knew that asking any further questions would only be pointless.

In those seven days, he had completely figured out the old man's temperament—like a rock in a latrine, both smelly and hard.

He only gives the result, never explaining the process.

"Okay." Lu Qingshan didn't say anything more, simply and decisively agreeing with one word.

He walked to the water vat, took off his coat without hesitation, leaving only a thin undershirt for easy movement.

The cold morning wind blowing through the valley gave his exposed skin goosebumps.

He ignored it, instead standing on the edge of the vat, taking a deep breath, inhaling all the cool air from the valley, carrying the fragrance of grass and trees, his chest bulging high.

Then, with his legs slightly bent, he leaped into the air silently, like a blue fish.

"Thump."

With a soft sound, the water didn't even splash very high.

The icy spring water instantly enveloped his entire body, as if countless ice needles were piercing his pores, ruthlessly stealing the last bit of body heat from him.

Lu Qingshan let his body slowly sink until his back gently touched the rough bottom of the tank.

He quickly adjusted his posture, sat cross-legged on the narrow bottom of the vat, formed a peculiar hand seal with his hands in front of his knees, and closed his eyes slightly.

The tortoise breathing technique in the "White Ape Guarding the Mountain Fist" is already quietly activated the moment one enters the water.

His heart rate dropped rapidly from over seventy beats per minute to forty, thirty... and finally, like a candle flickering in the wind, it stabilized at a mere dozen beats per minute.

He was like an old tortoise that had truly entered hibernation, reducing his body's oxygen consumption to an unbelievably low level.

Outside the water tank, sounds became muffled and distant, as if separated by a thick fog.

Time, in this dark and cramped underwater space, becomes viscous and long.

One minute.

Two minutes...

The tightness in his chest began to spread like vines from the deepest part of his lungs, entwining his heart and trying to disturb his mind.

Lu Qingshan focused intently on the faint vortex of Qi in his dantian, concentrating all his thoughts on it to resist his body's instinctive protests.

"Hold on, this is the last hurdle."

"The legacy of the herb gatherers... Zou Yuan's life's work... is right before our eyes."

He repeatedly reminded himself, using his strong willpower to suppress the rising restlessness.

I don't know how much time passed, maybe half an hour, maybe longer.

Just as he felt his lungs were about to burn from lack of oxygen, and his consciousness began to blur.

A muffled groan of pain could be faintly heard from the surface of the water.

"Um……"

The voice was very soft and suppressed, yet it was like a red-hot needle.

It precisely pierced the deathly silence at the bottom of the water and plunged hard into Lu Qingshan's eardrum.

Lu Qingshan's mind jolted, and he almost interrupted his tortoise breathing technique.

He forced himself to calm down, without even lifting his eyelids.

"A hallucination? Or a test?"

"Is it that old man's trick again? Trying to distract me with his voice and ruin everything?"

He wasn't a novice just starting out in the business; he'd seen plenty of these underhanded tactics before.

The closer we get to the final stage, the more vigilant we must be.

He closed his eyes again, trying to enter that ethereal state of complete absorption in the world.

However, immediately afterwards, there was a crisp "snap" sound!

It was like a clay pot used in the kitchen to hold herbs, which was accidentally dropped and shattered on the ground.

This sound is so realistic!

Lu Qingshan could no longer maintain absolute calm.

He suddenly opened his eyes and looked through the constantly swaying water at the blurry world outside, distorted by the light.

Outside the thatched hut, all was deathly silent.

The sound of the wind and birdsong were all that could be heard.

"Is it a hallucination? Or has the old man accurately predicted my limit of patience and is up to some new trick?"

He gritted his teeth and warned himself that he absolutely could not be fooled!

This final hurdle may be a true test of composure, remaining unmoved even in the face of imminent collapse. If you manage to break through, you've already lost!

Just as he was about to calm himself down and make his final sprint, another sound entered his ears.

It was a suppressed, intermittent groan, mixed with heavy breathing.

The voice was old and weak, filled with undisguised helplessness and pain.

It's Zou Yuan's voice!

Lu Qingshan's heart felt as if it had been gripped tightly by an invisible hand, and suddenly sank.

That voice... that voice is definitely not faked!

That feeling of weakness, of life force slipping away, cannot be faked!

Through the shimmering water, he strained to look upwards and saw a blurry figure that seemed to stumble before collapsing heavily to the ground beside the water vat, curling up in a ball, twitching slightly, and then gradually becoming still.

A 90-year-old man.

He lives alone in this secluded, remote mountain forest.

If a serious illness suddenly occurs, or if someone falls and falls into a coma...

An incredibly terrifying thought, like the most venomous viper with its cold fangs, burrowed fiercely into Lu Qingshan's mind.

"What if... what if this time it's for real..."

The moment this thought crossed his mind, the suffocating feeling in his chest was amplified a hundredfold or a thousandfold!

It felt like a mountain was pressing down on his chest, almost making him faint.

A test? A legacy to be passed down?

Do these abstract and intangible things matter in the face of a living, breathing human life?!

He subconsciously calculated the time.

Maybe...maybe if we just persevere for another 15 minutes, all the efforts of the past seven days will bring us that long-awaited result.

If you give up, all the suffering you've endured these seven days will have been for nothing! All your previous efforts will have been in vain!